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Top Banned Books of 2003
michaelzhao writes "The ALA (American Library Association) recently published the new 100 most frequently banned books list of 2003.
Of the banned books, Harry Potter was in the number 7th place in the most frequently banned. Also included were 'Where's Waldo' and 'The Giver' along with 'Goosebumps' and 'How to Eat Fried Worms.' These books were banned from various public institutions. This means that they were banned from various public libraries and public schools around the nation. (private schools, libraries, and institutions of higher learning don't count) The ALA encourages the people of the United States to fight against the book bans and read a banned book today!"
A Light in the Attic is on that list, but the bible isn't? I guess people don't know foul, disturbed literature when they see it.
What about the fact that one of our current presidential candidates, John Kerry, is calling for a book ban himself? In his relentless attack on a group of veterans, Kerry's campaign has asked the publisher of the book, Unfit for Command, to stop selling it and for bookstores to not carry it as well.
Agree with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth or not, this is still America and we still do believe in free speech. Well, unless your John Kerry of course.
infested with jello like fishes no melotron wishes
In meaningful terms, a banned book is one which the government forcibly prevents from being published or distributed. Like when Cuba jails librarians who distribute books unsympathetic to the regime (you won't hear from the ALA on that score).
To choose not to carry a book in your library is not equivalent to banning it. To have a policy of what books to carry and what not to in public libraries is fine too, and quite necessary (until the day when they can carry EVERY book). But to tell people that they can under no circumstances publish or distribute a book is evil, and happens far too often all over the world.
So your kids school library doesn't carry Goosebumps. Cry me a river. Have you ever read Goosebumps? It presents children with a malevolent world in which evil always triumphs, and the best you can hope for is to escape it unkilled.
If the ALA wants a cause, it ought to look into John Kerry trying to force the Swiftboat Vets to stop publishing their book.
I don't think it's appropriate for a little kid to have to read a book focusing on anyone's sexuality. PERIOD. Christ, at least wait until they're in double digits
Yes!!! Exactly what I was thinking!! We should wait until they're 12 at least before even talking about sex!
You do of course realize that this vein of thought is what will land you as the proud parent of a 12 year old single mom eh?
Oh god, that woman is John Romero!
the book by the swift boat veterans would be banned. See, little boys and girls, the left would ban books, too. It's not just a right-wing hobby.
Fear for your rights when either extreme of the political spectrum has its way.
Taking versus out of context makes you a fraud in my book, and btw I am a Muslim and I am telling you Islam is misrepresented and misunderstood, Islam is the final religion given to mankind by God and it is a sweet spot between the unforgiveness of Judaism and the complete opposite of Christianity, If you are misguided I can clarify things for you but if you are just spreading FUD about this great religion then I have better things to do.
And just for the record Islam admits that Christianity and Judaism are heavenly faiths coming from the same God, think of Islam an upgrade to once legitimate religions.
Yeah, Dubya actually came to my house once, took the books off the shelf and lit them up. It was crazy.
Give me a break. Read the page. No books were burned. Many books were not even removed, let alone banned. Complaints were filed against them.
We got our lessons when the Germans had their book-burnings here during the war.
Yeah, we didn't need an army to take over our country to figure out, "Hey, maybe burning books is a bad thing." Our military resistance lasted more than a week. I'm sure Anne Frank was really happy you "got your lesson."
I'd guess that he'd claim that they died of illness, malnutrition, and exposure. Survivors reported people dying that way, and reported conditions in which that would be expected.
I wouldn't be too surprised if the stories of Nazis slaughtering Jews are all made up by people who couldn't believe that 12 million people could die from poor conditions, and who wanted to believe that the Nazi camps were qualitatively (as opposed to only quantitatively) worse than the American ones. Showers that gas people really sounds like something you'd come up with when you're expecting something specifically deadly, and don't find anything.
But why would any Jews have survived after reaching the camps, let alone survived long enough to be rescued, if the camps were actually designed specifically to kill groups of people together and suddenly? Why would they build sneaky devices to kill people with when they could kill them simply by failing to provide adaquately for them? Occam's Razor suggests that the way that eyewitnesses report people dying, if sufficient, was the only way people died.
Not, of course, that this excuses anything; if anything, being starved and worked to death is a worse fate than poison gas. But it does mean that we can't think of the Nazis as being crazy and inexplicable people doing things we know we wouldn't do. Sure, the Nazis were evil, but don't think they were overtly evil. There is only so much most people are capable of as far as things that are obviously wrong. But people are capable of much worse things that aren't obviously wrong. If we don't recognize this, we risk justifying another Holocaust simply by telling outselves we aren't gassing people in showers.
and what of childrens' innocence? are we to destroy it as early as possible simply to appease the PC goddesses?
But how do you protect your child from hearing that somebody like George Bush is in power?
The Kerry campaign is trying to stop the publishing and distribution of Unfit for Command.
Has Bush tried to have any of the hundreds of books that criticized him banned? No, not one.
Then again, you have a real disadvantage when the truth is against you, eh?
I watch Brit Hume on Fox News
You are an idiot. Lefty wacko socialist. What is Kerry's voting record? you can't find it because he hasn't been there to vote in 19 years. Kerry is a scum sucking liar, period, end of story. He has NO stand on any issue, he changes his mind constantly can't seem to decide where he stands. Kerry has no plan for defense, no plan for taxes, and no foreign policy. I suppose he will get his butler to make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. He is a traitor, liar, socialist, elitist, and a total moron. You are a moron if you think the US will be a better place with him as it's leader.
If Kerry was the answer, it must have been a stupid question.
The UN - The largest "political" cause of death.
When we sold "Last Temptation of Christ, some Christians boycotted, some urged others to boycott, and some wrote letters to the newspapers.
And when they tried to put niggers in the white schools, it was Christians who put bombs in black churches and murdered little girls (you can find that information in a book.) And when white trash sluts claimed they were raped by niggers, it was white Christian men who lynched them without a trial (you can find that information in a book.) And when gay men are brutally murdered, it's because the Bible says being gay is a sin (you can find that in a book also.)
Thank your lucky stars that contributing to the retardedness of the world isn't a crime, because you're a center of anti-intelligence.
No Christian church has the right to control what's in a public state school. This is in stark contrast to Islamic control of schools in certain mideast nations.
This is complete bullshit. This is exactly how things have -actually- been conducted in American history despite laws to the contrary. Why did we even fucking HAVE the Scopes Monkey Trial? It was because THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH WAS CONTROLLING WHAT WAS IN A PUBLIC STATE SCHOOL. Fucking Christ on a pogo stick, and you used to work in a bookstore? Let me recommend that you READ a BOOK once in awhile.
Clicky clicky, looky lefty. See there? "Banned." Clicky clicky.
Fuckin' moron.
I write in my journal
"The joy of killin black, homo, kikes"
I am sure that the rest of you fine liberals will join me in calling for the wider publication of this fine book. We need to work together to get it into the hands of small children everywhere.
Is there anything that YOU would find offensive?
It is not prejudice, it is just judgement.